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Topic: Reading/Book Pet Peeves (Read 355370 times)

When you read a serie of books, and many characters and plotlines are introduced, and then left alone, and brought back 2 books later without a quick new introduction so you are left wondering 'I am supposed to know this character/about thhis event, but I don't remember anything!' I'm looking at you, wheel of time.

As for e other Boleyn girl: Maria did inherit from her parents, so in the end she was rather well off. But then again, she died at quite a young age too. If we use her age from the book, she died in her thirties.

In the UK paperbacks are sold with VAT at 0% while ebooks are at 17.5%. However most ebooks are still cheaper.

Finland's other problem with e-books is that we're such a small market with very little competition (like from Amazon) so the prices stay high. I think that most people who read a lot of e-books here do it in English, I know I do.

A pet peeve for me is some electronic book prices. You want me to pay more for an electronic book than what I would pay if I went to the book store and bought the paperback? I don't think so.

This is one of my pet peeves as well. I want this new thriller called Gone Girl. It looks really good. Everywhere I look the paperback is cheeper then the kindle. I didn't really want another paperback as my collection is getting quite big but I am not paying more for the kindle book.

When you read a serie of books, and many characters and plotlines are introduced, and then left alone, and brought back 2 books later without a quick new introduction so you are left wondering 'I am supposed to know this character/about thhis event, but I don't remember anything!' I'm looking at you, wheel of time.

As for e other Boleyn girl: Maria did inherit from her parents, so in the end she was rather well off. But then again, she died at quite a young age too. If we use her age from the book, she died in her thirties.

That was why I hated the second book in the Divergent series. There were seemingly dozens of characters and relationships and alliances introduced in the first book. That's fine, but when the second book came out a year later, several months after most people read the first one, the author didn't weave in any back story whatsoever. She kept alluding to people/events that were important in some way in the first book without explaining who/what she is talking about or why they are important. After several months, I am not going to remember the intricacies and important details of every minor character and their relationships. Example: The main character keeps berating herself for what she did to a minor character in the previous book. "I can't forgive myself for what I did to so-and-so," etc. But she doesn't say what she actually did or what that person's relationship to her was, or even WHY what she did was such a betrayal, until halfway through.

An author who is really good at weaving in backstory without beating you over the head with it is Richelle Mead.

GOOD DEITY, was that awful. It might have made for a decent Generic Sci-Fi novel, but it was as if he had another book he wanted to write, and just started copy/replacing names from DS9. The only reason I kept reading was for snark factor, to give me something to complain about I guess. It was 198 pages of nonsense, and I might have thrown the book except it's on my eReader, and I like my eReader.

My major pet peeve: People who write to a genre, and IGNORE the genre. If you want to write Space Guy!: The New Adventures, GO FOR IT. But leave the setting alone.

When short stories in anthologies introduce characters that are then integrated into the series books with no further explanation. (Iím looking at you, Charlaine Harris)

Donít get me wrongóI want to read the short stories, but they are rarely advertised in the preceding book (or the following one), and I donít have any inclination to get every anthology published, nor do think I should have to follow the author so closely that I will miss an important part of a series if Iím not following their website/social media/whatever to let them tell me to buy an anthology.

Simple mistakes that should have been caught at proofreading stage. That. Drives. Me. Mad.

Absolutely!

I finished a book while waiting on the mechanic today and read, "...and then he asked her to marry her." Great scott, how did they miss that! I hope he was asking her to marry HIM.

Like the book I reviewed an ARC of where somebody was given a "three carrot ring", and another person "whispered vial threats with the veracity of a tiger".

*Sigh*

Was she given the ring by Bugs Bunny?

For the second, I see a tiger standing there holding a vial of deadly poison, growling, "I'll throw this! Don't doubt me, I will, if you don't do what I want!"

Logged

My cousin's memoir of love and loneliness while raising a child with multiple disabilities will be out on Amazon soon! Know the Night, by Maria Mutch, has been called "full of hope, light, and companionship for surviving the small hours of the night."

When short stories in anthologies introduce characters that are then integrated into the series books with no further explanation. (Iím looking at you, Charlaine Harris)

Donít get me wrongóI want to read the short stories, but they are rarely advertised in the preceding book (or the following one), and I donít have any inclination to get every anthology published, nor do think I should have to follow the author so closely that I will miss an important part of a series if Iím not following their website/social media/whatever to let them tell me to buy an anthology.

Yes! You look forward to a character's book and then it comes out as a short story that doesn't have enough space for development. And even worse if it's in an anthology with other stories you don't read because you don't follow those authors/series. Paying full price to read one short story? Bah!

I remember reading a mystery where a critical character was supposed to be from Eastern Europe, Romania, if I remember correctly. Only his dialogue didn't sound like a Romanian, he sounded like Yoda. E.g. "Tell you I will."